Abstract

The aim of this research project is to create an expressive body ofdrawings derived from exploring personal experiences with place andlandscape. The objective is to visually capture experiential and emotivedimensions of place as an alternate way of depicting landscape andunderstanding place.The impetus for the project and its subject matter derives through personalexperience of Tasman Island that lies approximately 1 kilometre off thesoutheastern coast of Tasmania. I am drawn to the island by its wild andimposing natural elements and its wildly varying weather conditions.Throughout the project four trips were made to the island and these,together with both historical and pictorial accounts of the island, form thebasis of imagery.Mark making and gesture are central to methods. Approaches to mark-makingwere explored through a variety of figurative forms fromrepresentational through to purely abstract. The objective was to establishdrawing forms that best expressed a sense of an embodied relationship tolandscape and place.Key within these methods was the use of the scribble and rhythmicgestural drawing. Explorations within mark-making were expandedthrough investigation into figure and ground relations and through adoptionof processes of chance. As the project developed the performativedimensions elemental to large-scale gestural drawing became increasinglyimportant. The project is primarily located with reference to the work of GosiaWlodarczak, Claude Heath, Akio Makigawa and Vija Celmins as well asthree 19th century drawings of Tasman Island. Works are discussed inrelation to core conceptual and methodological focus of my project,specifically how each artist has employed mark-making and gesture toexpress a deeply personal experience of landscape and to place.The outcomes of the project are evidenced through works comprising thesubmission exhibition, through backup works and supporting exegesis.These outputs contribute to the field of art practice concerned with issuesof environment and place but also to broader philosophical debates aboutthe relationship of humans, subjectivity and the natural environment.Through their forging a deeper connection to place and the naturalenvironment the drawings provide an alternate to more conventionalvisualisations that give primacy to objectified representations of place.

Item Type:

Thesis
(Research Master)

Keywords:

Landscape drawing, Place attachment, Place (Philosophy) in art

Copyright Holders:

The Author

Copyright Information:

Copyright 2010 the Author - The University is continuing to endeavour to trace the copyright owner(s) and in the meantime this item has been reproduced here in good faith. We would be pleased to hear from the copyright owner(s).